News

Sydney Physicist Honoured by French University

16 June 2010

The Universite Paul Cezanne recently awarded Professor Ross McPhedran, a senior researcher with IPOS and CUDOS based within the School of Physics, a Doctorate Honoris Causa by at a ceremony in Aix en Provence, France, on June 7.

Ross McPhedran.

Professor McPhedran has been actively collaborating with researchers from this Universite, and its sister institution, the Universite de Provence, since 1973.

He is being acknowledged for his work on diffraction gratings, photonic crystals and microstructured optical fibres. In the last area, a highly successful new method was developed between Sydney and Marseille for the calculation of the optical properties of this new class of fibre.

One outcome of this joint work was the co-tutelle PhD of Boris Kuhlmey, joint between Marseille and Sydney. Dr Kuhlmey is now a Senior Lecturer and Future Fellow in the School.

Professor McPhedran said, "I am thrilled to be the recipient of such a prestigious acknowledgement. When I arrived in France, I was a green neophyte from Tasmania, with a good knowledge of irregular verbs and virtually no knowledge of spoken French."

"I learned a lot in my first year as a post-doctoral fellow in Marseille. This learning experience has continued over the years, with emerging young researchers as well as my colleagues of 1973. In the Centre of Excellence, CUDOS, in which I work, there is a strong group of Francophones and Francophiles."

There is a long history of research collaboration between Australia and France, dating back to the encounter between Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders in 1802. Professor McPhedran is proud to be carrying on this fine tradition.